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Daylight Savings Time: Falling back can have sleep side effects

People who suffer from insomnia or depression will be most affected by extra hour of sleep.

An extra hour of sleep can affect your mood, eating and social habits says Dr. Colleen Carney is a sleep specialist who teaches at Ryerson University. (FILE PHOTO)

By Victoria PtashnickStaff Reporter

Sat., Nov. 3, 2012

The end of daylight-saving time this Sunday will allow an extra hour of beauty sleep, but not without some pesky effects.

“Some people don’t think that an hour has any impact at all on your body and that’s not true,” says Dr. Colleen Carney, a sleep specialist who teaches at Ryerson University, and is director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory.

She likens lack of sleep to driving through a time zone when you’re hungry.

“If you’re starving and you’re driving through one time zone and it’s supper time and then you’re suddenly in a different time zone, the hunger doesn’t go away.”

There are two separate clocks: one in our bodies and the other, on the wall.

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People often attribute jetlag to travel but it’s really just a mismatch between the time you’re travelling in and your inner clock.

“When your inner clock doesn’t match the environment, your body is going to have to match up. So whenever we change the environment, daylight-savings time, for example, your body will still be aligning itself with the inner clock, not the clock in the environment we’re in,” Carney explains.

She says that could affect mood, eating and social habits. She says you may wake up starving because you are used to eating at an earlier time or you may feel a bit cranky and adds that if your body is usually alert at a certain time, it will continue to be, making sleeping in difficult.

For most people the effects shouldn’t be too dramatic. But for people already suffering from sleeping problems such as insomnia and those with depression — the switch could be particularly hard.

“Adding an hour of sleep can exacerbate insomnia,” by throwing off the regular sleeping schedule so crucial to helping with insomnia.

Canryey’s suggestion: Think of the beginning and end of daylight-saving times as you would a New Year’s Eve resolution — reflect on how you sleeping and think about prioritizing your sleep schedule.

Five tips to a good nights sleep from the Mayo Clinic:

• Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Being consistent reinforces your body’s sleep-wake cycle.

• Pay attention to what you eat and drink. Don’t go to bed either hungry or stuffed.

• Limit daytime naps. If you choose to nap during the day, limit yourself to about 10 to 30 minutes and make it during the midafternoon.

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